Can China Hold its Own in Competitive Eating?

Hot dogs are displayed on stage at the 2010 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest at the original Nathan’s Famous in Coney Island on July 4, 2010 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press

World Champion hot dog-eater Joey Chestnut, left, poses with Bob Shoudt at the official weigh-in ceremony for the Nathan’s Famous July 4 International Hot Dog-Eating Contest in New York, Friday July 2, 2010.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China proved it’s moving up in the sporting world. But there’s one competition in which China’s traditional rivals, the U.S. and Japan, still clearly dominate.

Some of China’s biggest food lovers and most ambitious diners have been auditioning to duke it out in the country’s first-ever hot dog eating contest, to be held in Beijing on Saturday. The sponsor, U.S. fast food chain Nathan’s Famous Inc., hopes to stir up excitement around its new outlets in China and has promised to send the top two winners of this event to compete in its annual international face-off in Coney Island to see who can cram the most wieners down the hatch in 10 minutes.

Initially, Nathan’s, based in Westbury, N.Y., had big hopes for Chinese eaters. Many people here, despite being small in stature, can pack in serious quantities of food, according to Paul Marcus, head of Nathan’s China operations. He said he half-expected to find a Chinese version of Takeru Kobayashi, the diminutive Japanese man who surprised the world by stuffing 50 hot dogs into his scrawny body during the 2001 Coney Island contest, crushing the previous record of 25 and christening an era of dog-scarfing dominance that would last until 2007, when American Joey Chestnut set a new record of 59.5.

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Thus far, however, few from China’s mainland have proven to have the skills needed for this big food fight.

“Most have just talked a big game,” said Mr. Marcus. A hundred or so entrants claimed they could stomach at least a dozen hot dogs, but when put to the test, they couldn’t prove it, Mr. Marcus said.

Lai Jun, a 27-year-old Beijing-native, said he thought he had a special knack for eating, noting that in an average day he can take on three hamburgers in a sitting. Five hot dogs is what he considers a normal lunch. He thought he could eat at least 10 dogs at a recent trial for the contest, but ended up only putting down seven.

“I just couldn’t figure out how to get it down that fast,” Mr. Lai said. “You watch the winners of these contests and they don’t even chew.”

Mr. Chestnut, a four-time winner of the Nathan’s contest, holds the current record of 68 hot dogs. He will judge the Beijing match and also try to inspire China’s future Major League Eaters by endeavoring to eat 50 hot dogs in only five minutes.

Despite his earlier struggles, Mr. Lai said he’s still going to attempt to compete this Saturday. He’ll be joined by a host of other rookies from China’s mainland plus two men from Hong Kong, where competitive eating has started to take off thanks to a 50-member club that launched five years ago and calls itself the “Eatcredibles.”

Chris Lam, a 32-year-old from Hong Kong, is a likely front-runner. He has won local competitions, eating 44 German sausages in eight minutes, and he’s proven he can shovel in 10 hot dogs in four minutes and 25 sushi piece in two minutes.

Mr. Chestnut says he’ll have his eyes on the Chinese contenders, looking to see if any have special tactics such as his. “I get into a rhythm,” Mr. Chestnut said. “Two meats, wet bun, wet bun.”

If any of the competitors use hot water to soak their buns, Mr. Chestnut says he’ll know they’re serious about eating.

Competitive eating has a strong future in China, but it will need time to gain recognition, said Mike Antoloni, a representative of Major League Eating, which oversees professional eating contests. Prizes often serve as an incentive, Mr. Antoloni said, noting that the winners of Saturday’s contest will get all-expense-paid trips to New York. They’ll take home another $20,000 if they win the Coney Island contest.

Mr. Chestnut won $220,000 by dominating multiple competitions last year. He said he’d like to see competitive eating grow in China, but he’s not willing to train any aspiring Chinese chompers. “It took me years to figure out my body and I’m not giving away any of my secrets,” he said.

If competitive eating doesn’t take off in China, Nathan’s hopes at least that its food will. The publicly-listed company is expanding in China, and aspires to be one of the largest Western fast food companies in China.

Opening its fourth outlet this summer in Beijing, Nathan’s has a long way to go to catch up with the other leading chains. Yum Brands Inc. opens one KFC nearly every day in China, according to the company. It operates 3,300 stores in more than 700 cities. McDonald’s Inc announced earlier this year plans to open 700 new outlets by 2013, up from its current 1300.

In other words, it’s not just China’s competitive eaters who have their work cut out for them.

UPDATE: Curious how the contest turned out? We have the round-up, including video, here.

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